Imagine if Stepbrothers and Casa De Mi Padre groped each other at the office Christmas party and you basically get Border Guards, a new film from Adam McKay starring Will Ferrell and my favorite actor in the world, John C. Reilly.

The studio has closed a deal with Oscar-nominated In The Loop writer Jesse Armstrong to pen Border Guards. It’s a comedy that McKay is eyeing to direct, with Ferrell and Reilly playing two hapless but earnest friends who decide to give purpose to their lives by protecting America’s borders from illegal immigrants. In the process they find themselves accidentally stranded in Mexico without identification and must sneak back into the U.S. [Deadline]

Stepbrothers was about as close as you can get to “a film about nothing,” a series of sketches loosely stitched together that mostly worked because Ferrell and Reilly are two of the greatest comedic improv actors in the world, especially when they’re together. In the Loop, by contrast, is mostly about understated acting and devastatingly vulgar one-liners. It’s kind of a weird marriage. It could prove Will Ferrell’s versatility, or it could be like trying to combine caviar and marshmallows. But if they could combine boats and hoes…

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I hope there’s a Canadian version of this with Jim Carey and William Shatner standing at the border, shaking hands like they’re in a receiving line saying “Welcome! Sorry sir, you’ll have to leave your tank on the other side, but yes! Come on in, eh! Here’s your complimentary maple syrup.”

I maintain that ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ is a perfectly enjoyable example of Will Ferrell’s range. It even managed to make Maggie Gyllenhall seem desirable through Ferrell’s character’s eyes. Dustin Hoffman is subtly funny… it’s a good movie, yo.

I believe in Ferrell/Reilly’s range more than I believe in McKay’s ability to make a funny movie with a political bent. The Other Guys’ political angle felt really crowbarred in and weird. But they’re all talented people, who knows.

Yeah but wasn’t like 90% of the political stuff in The Other Guys during the credits? I just thought “that’s weird”, turned the movie off, and never thought about it again because it’s just the credits.